Jazz Appreciation Workshop at William Grant Still Arts Center March 2, 2005

By LeRoy Downs

I can't believe that in 2005 this is really a question. However, for those who don't know, Eric Dolphy is one of the most influential, creative and dedicated jazz musicians that ever lived. The music of this man has made a tremendous difference in my life as well as many a jazz lover, jazz musician, jazz icon, a jazz historian or anyone else who knows, plays and listens to the art form.

Phil Ranelin, the great trombone player of Los Angeles and beyond, put together a program featuring the music and life of Eric Dolphy. A few people were there who actually knew Eric or heard about him in the neighborhood where he grew up near Western and Jefferson here in Los Angeles.

One of the stories told was how Eric played with the birds. The birds would sing and Eric would play his flute and sing back. Eric's parents built a room in the back of their house so that Eric could practice and this is where he spent fourteen hour days cultivating and perfecting his music on all of the many instruments. People would say that Eric would practice one note for three days! Many of the greats such as Buddy Collette, Max Roach and quite a few others would come over and have all day night and all day long jazz jam sessions.

I shared my love for Eric Dolphy's music. I wish I could have been around to know him and see him play. I used to play his music on my radio show just about every night. He had so much to say that I just wanted to get his vocabulary inside of my body and enlighten my life with some Dolphy wisdom.

Phil played some recordings and showed some video tape of Eric performing with Charles Mingus which was quite a treat. Others shared their thoughts on Eric and how his music affected their lives. Eric's life was cut much too short by diabetes but the love, the music and the legacy of Eric Dolphy will live on this earth and in our hearts forever!

Eric Allan Dolphy, Jr. was born in Los Angeles, California on June 20, 1928. His very loving and supportive Central American parents, Eric Allan Dolphy, Sr. (February 6, 1903, Panama - March 28, 1988 Los Angeles) and Sadie C. Gilling Dolphy (March 19, 1907, Costa Rica - January 28, 1987, Los Angeles), raised their only child in the City of Los Angeles. Eric Jr. graduated from 36^th Street Elementary School, Foshay Junior High School and Dorsey Miller High School and he played with the neighborhood children at Denker Playground which was less than a block from his house -- all located on the Westside of Central Los Angeles where he was raised in his family home at 1593 West 36^th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90018. He was a member and sang in the choir of Westminster Presbyterian Church, located just across the street from Denker Playground and pastured by Reverend Dr. Hampton B. Hawes, father of Eric Jr.'s childhood friend, legendary Jazz pianist, Hampton Hawes. His music education began on the harmonica at Rosewood School until the family moved to their new home and he entered 36^th Street Elementary School when he was 8 years old. He competed citywide for and won a two-year scholarship at the U.S.C. School of Music while he was still attending Foshay Junior High School; and by the time he joined the Dorsey High School Orchestra, he was already playing professionally.

He earned private music lessons by doing chores and running errands for renowned music teacher Lloyd Reese and after graduating from Dorsey, he studied music theory at Los Angeles City College and he continued to play professionally in and around Los Angeles. In 1950 he went into the Army and was assigned to enter the U.S. Naval School of Music in Washington, D.C., earning his certificate of completion December 18, 1952. He returned home after his discharge in 1953. Though Dolphy also played clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe and flute, his reputation on the alto saxophone is what landed him work with George Brown, Gerald Wilson and Buddy Collette. Buddy Collette had become an important mentor to Dolphy. In 1956 he worked with Eddie Beal and in 1958-59 he took Buddy Collette's suggestion to move to New York and join another Los Angeles native, Chico Hamilton, upon Collette's decision to remain in Los Angeles. Dolphy joined another Los Angeles homeboy, Charles Mingus, with whom he played and recorded from 1960 until 1964. In 1960 he recorded with Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz, along with other cohorts of 'advanced simultaneous composition' - Freddie Hubbard, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Scott LaFaro, Billy Higgins and Eddie Blackwell. Dolphy also toured and recorded with John Coltrane in 1961 and 1962, contributing with McCoy Tyner to Coltrane's arrangements on Africa/Brass and soloing on Coltrane's Impressions, Live at the Village Vanguard and Ole'. Coltrane had befriended Dolphy earlier in Los Angeles (1954) and when Dolphy relocated to New York in 1959, they collaborated extensively and became very close friends.

The relationship between Eric Dolphy and Charles Mingus was another very deep spiritual and musical collaboration. In Simosko & Tepperman's ERIC DOLPHY-A Musical Biography and Discography, (Smithsonian Institution Press, Wash. D.C. 1974), Mingus testifies, "Eric Dolphy was a saint - in every way not just in his playing." Buddy Collette, who picked up Mingus at LAX for Dolphy's funeral, confirms that at Rosedale Cemetery, Mingus actually tried to climb into the grave with Eric Dolphy! Without question, Eric Dolphy joins Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Joe Henderson, Sam Rivers, John Gilmore, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Pat Patrick, McCoy Tyner, Alice Coltrane, Horace Tapscott, Cecil Taylor, Wayne Shorter, Sam Rivers, Don Cherry, Sonny Rollins, Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Anthony Braxton, Bennie Maupin, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Phil Ranelin, David Murray, Ken McIntyre, Booker Little, Hamiet Bluiett, Richard "Muhal" Abrams, Oliver Lake, Billy Hart, Sunny Murray, Sonny Simmons and all the others in that very special continuum of those avant-garde creators and innovators who stretched the Jazz envelope far beyond the BeBop-Hard Bop tradition into new realms of creative exploration.

On June 29, 1964, before the release of his recording (posthumously entitled) Last Date, Eric Allan Dolphy, Jr. died in Berlin, Germany at the age of 36 from excessive sugar in his bloodstream causing a total collapse of his veins - a fatal stroke from undiagnosed diabetes. He was buried by his devoted parents at Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles where all three now rest in peace. Dolphy was inducted, posthumously, into the Down Beat Magazine's Hall of Fame in 1964. 40 years later, the City of Los Angeles, Department of Recreation and Parks has named the newly constructed 5-million dollar community recreation and cultural building at Denker Recreation Center in honor of Eric Allan Dolphy, Jr. and his birthday, June 20^th, has been officially designated as Eric Allan Dolphy, Jr. Day throughout the City and County of Los Angeles and throughout the State of California, henceforth!